Friday 13 June 2008

Picture News Catch Up

Just for a change (please note sarcasm here) it has started to rain but as there is no accompanying thunder I’m going to take the opportunity to catch up on a couple of the photographs I’ve taken. A word of warning, the final one is a bit gruesome so scroll down with care. Oh and I've just noticed that this is post 150, my how posts fly when you're enjoying them.

First up though are some new arrivals to the farm.

I eventually let mum sit on 6 eggs because both she and I were first-timers; in the end she has 3 chicks. One egg exploded about 2 weeks into the incubation. I tried candling them but they all looked the same to me. Of the remaining 5, two hatched over last Saturday night and one the following day. Another chick died before it finished getting out of the egg and the final egg exploded when I threw it onto the bonfire site after mum had abandoned it for 2 days.

Now it remains to be seen how many of the chicks are female and how many male. While I would like more layers, chicken for the pot is good too. Here’s one protective mum.

The weather while still wet is warming up and the cats are loosing their winter coats. This is no problem with the short haired cats, Cid and Patches, but it means fur balls for the long-haired cats, Snowy and Hazel.

Snowy adores being groomed with the flea comb as it removes all the dust and unwanted fur and you only have to show her the comb for her to leap onto your lap to be groomed. A bonus for me is that as she is totally white, if there are any unwanted livestock on her they are easy to spot against her white fur.

Hazel on the other hand detests being combed. She has far more under fur that mattes into great big lumps that eventually needs cutting off, another thing that she hates. I finally managed to collar her the other day and subjected her to a comb through; this is the result of a couple of minutes combing.

The pile was about half the size of her and when I returned from getting the camera I at first thought it was her on the seat. I’ve now got all but one lump of matted fur off her and am working away at it. Trying to cut fur on a wriggling cat is rather nerve-racking so I have to wait until she is in one of her sleepy moods and then cut a bit and then tease a bit out with my fingers. She’s a bit happier with me combing the rest of her coat now so I’m hoping that I can keep on top of it and stop any more mattes from forming.

Gruesome picture alert.

I went out into the garden the other morning and spotted this offering on the lawn.

I don’t know if it is a stoat or a weasel as the tip of it’s tail had been eaten. I always remember being told that a Stoat has a tip to its tail. This only works with the Least Weasel, which is the usual one in the UK.


3 comments:

aims said...

Ewww! Better on the lawn than on the bed I guess.

That is a lot of fur from one cat. I know getting the mats off is a very tricky business. I'm always afraid of cutting their very thin skin. (shiver)

We use to feed the cat something to keep it occupied while we cut. Turned funny - the growling - chewing - growling - snipping.

Georgina said...

Do you know how to tell the difference between a stoat and a weasle?

They're weasily told apart because they are stoatally different ! BumBum Debs x

Stew said...

It's very dead, at any rate.